


Code-switching

by ThinkButThis



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: John ponders things, Sherlock has PTSD, awww
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-17
Updated: 2014-07-17
Packaged: 2018-02-09 04:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1969632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThinkButThis/pseuds/ThinkButThis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John realizes a change in Sherlock and wonders what it could mean.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Code-switching

**Author's Note:**

> Planning out post-mission trama for another character put this idea in my head and I couldn't get it out. I had a very long car ride today and decided to just scribble something down. I'm probably butchering the understanding of languages but hey, at least I'm admitting it.
> 
> This is post TEH and sometime before TSoT. The time line is likely off but hey, AU. 
> 
> Also, it's not beta'd or brit-picked.

Main Entry: code–switching

Function: noun

: the switching from the linguistic system of one language or dialect to that of another

 

John Watson wasn't entirely sure when he first noticed the change. He didn't see Sherlock too much anymore since he got married. The moments he did spend with the detective tended to be on the odd case he found he could fit into work schedule. At least Mary didn’t mind the cases - she liked Sherlock, who knew why. She was more than happy to know that John was spending time with him doing what they both enjoyed. 'Just like old times' she had said except it wasn't quite like the old times because the Doctor's life was now going down a different path. No longer could he spend the long nights chasing criminals - he had a wife and a good job that tied him down.

Sherlock knew a lot of languages - well, John assumed he did. He'd heard him speak German and French and he once admitted that he'd studied Latin (which wasn't surprising at all.) With Sherlock's big brain and constant need for information, relief from boredom and possible skills needed on the job, the older man wouldn't be shocked to learn that he likely knew half a dozen more in some form or another.

They didn't talk about the two years that Sherlock was believed to be dead. Once or twice Sherlock had let a fraction of information slip out, nothing major, maybe a country he'd been in for a time or something he had learned while there. John had tried to bring it up a few times but he'd noticed how Sherlock had practically shut down from him doing so and had decided to let sleeping dogs lie. If the detective wanted to bring it up, it would have to be on his own terms. He was a doctor, not a psychologist, but it didn't take a mental health professional to realize that pressuring the great Sherlock Holmes to talk about things he didn't want to mention was not the best of ideas.

At first, it was maybe a word or two muttered under his breath at a specifically frustrating crime scene. John had asked him to repeat himself, thinking perhaps something was said that he misheard, but his request was ignored. Again, he didn't ask more of it.

In particularly heated moments or slightly more dangerous than comforting situations was when John first started picking up that something was amiss. A phrase or two, then he'd shake his head to clear his mind when he noticed John's look, and return to his normal speech. As much as he wanted to ask, he never brought it up with Sherlock.

For weeks, he racked his brain trying to connect the dots between language and country in hopes of getting some insight into what was going on in his best friend's mind. He wasn't a linguist, he didn't even try to pretend he was. Outside of what he heard around London or remembered from what he heard while in the army, he was honestly a bit clueless when it came to that. The doctor supposed he could always just fold and ask Mycroft but frankly that was 'invasion of privacy' of the upmost levels and he wasn't going to stoop to that. He'd rather leave it a mystery than betray Sherlock's trust like that.

John knew the mechanics of what was going on, he'd learned about it during some psychology class or another he had to take at some point during his school days. Code-switching; the jump between one language to another either consciously or not. He'd seen it first-hand in a more major way in his army days as he and fellow soldiers would switch between the local language and their own for easier communication. That was all a conscious choice - it seemed Sherlock didn't realize what he was doing until after the fact. Something about high stress situations was triggering something in his mind and not even the great detective could get a hold on it.

It was after a dangerous chase that had ended up with a few bullets piercing a wall dangerously close to Sherlock and a good amount of muttered foreign words on the detective's part that John finally realized that the language in question was Serbian. He'd known for a while that it was Slavic, at times it sounded a bit Russian, other times it sounded more Polish, but it had never entirely clicked to him. He had no idea why he remembered at that time that Sherlock had once mentioned he'd spent the end of his 'death' in Serbia or why his brain chose to connect the dots then but it was a relief to him when the mystery was solved.

Or was it?

He realized a while ago that Sherlock only made the switch when he was extremely stressed or the situation at hand got dangerous. He had made assumptions about what had happened abroad but never had asked about it. With what he knew of Moriarty and the deep cover Sherlock was in, he could only guess that many 'not good' things had happened both to and by the detective. But what was it about Serbia that Sherlock's mind associated 'threat' with enough that it felt the need to switch to what John could only call 'danger mode' and switch back to the native language of the country?

He glanced over to his best friend who was filling Lestrade in on details of their latest case (rather rudely from the looks of it) and sighed.

What was it about Serbia? Perhaps John would never know.


End file.
